


The end of the world

by OoOMagnoliaOoO



Series: Leonora and Arthur universe [11]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Marriage of Convenience, Mentions of Blind Betrayal, There might be tears, Trigger Warning for depression, angsty, bring the tissues, this does not have a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-28 17:17:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10141211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OoOMagnoliaOoO/pseuds/OoOMagnoliaOoO
Summary: This union wasn’t one instigated by want, or love for that matter, but rather one forged out of necessity. But it could never be, because she was too hung up on the past, and he was too set in his ways to change.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



This union wasn’t something that he wanted to enter into, but for the sake of the Commonwealth and her people, it needed to be done. The worst part wasn’t even the fact that whenever they saw each other, hell seemed to rain down on them. No, the worst part were all those moments when she wouldn’t even let him near. 

Even though she had agreed to this in the first place, Leonora just absolutely refused to let him touch her. It had been four months since their wedding, and apart from their wedding night, nothing had happened. Arthur wanted to scream at the Gods for cursing him with such a spiteful wife. 

He flipped yet another paper, staring at more reports of the fuel levels. Coolant was running low, which was nothing new. He flipped again. Death reports and autopsies that needed his signature before they could be sent to the loved ones of the deceased soldier. Arthur hastily scribbled his name on the dotted line. 

The Elder sighed for the umpteenth time, rubbing his sore temples, trying to rid himself of the lingering headache. Eventually, he gave up and put down the pen. He leaned back in his chair, letting his arms fall free on either side of his body. 

The bed lay dormant, her side having been untouched for months. Despite their vows, she never shared his bed. Ever since Danse’s secret had come to light, and his execution order (which she had stubbornly refused to perform), Leonora had claimed that sharing his bed would be like sharing the bed of a demon in sheep’s clothing. 

Though he supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. It’s not like she needed another reason to hate him. She had plenty of those it seemed, one more outrageous than the other. He couldn’t even be bothered to list them, as they had piled up so greatly in number that it was ridiculous. 

The door flew open, his wife stomping into his quarters angrier than a territorial deathclaw. Her brown eyes bored holes into his skull, but he couldn’t find it in himself to look away. 

After a long silence, that seemed to go on for hours, she slammed her fist into the table. 

“I seriously hope that you plan on doing something about last Thursday’s incident.” 

Ah, he thought, the Thursday incident. What a surprise that she would bring that up in her fury. It had happened a few days prior when Proctor Teagan had sent out Knights to collect crops. One had over ambitiously, in pure anger, assaulted a poor settler who refused to hand over their produce. 

Yes, that was why they were in this mess to begin with. For crops, land and protection. To form an allegiance between the damn Minutemen and the Brotherhood of Steel. 

He sighed yet again. “I don’t know what to say, Nora. It has been dealt with.” 

She started pacing back and forth. “Yeah, right…” His wife muttered. “A slap on the wrist is apparently what goes for “Dealt with” these days.” The pre-war vault dweller made mocking air quotes, souring his mood further. 

“It wasn’t a slap on the wrist.” He retorted dryly. “One Knight is in the brig for two weeks and the other is-” She cut him off. 

“The other has to scrub floors for a week.” Leonora once again slammed her open palms into the metal table. “That’s what I would call a slap on the wrist. I just got another report from a settler at the Slog. One of the residents there has a slash to her face the size of a pen! I won’t sit by and watch this happen any longer, you hear me?” She screamed. 

Where were the times where they spent days in silence? He asked himself. Though it really could be put off no longer. She was right, he admitted begrudgingly. 

“Who did it?” Arthur asked as nicely as he could manage. 

“Haynes and Jonsson.” Nora tried to muster back a calm reply, that really came out as an angry snarl. “I’m not having this anymore. Either you deal with it properly, or you can kiss this marriage goodbye. We agreed on this so that the Commonwealth settlers wouldn’t have to fear for their life every time the Brotherhood goes stomping their steelclad boots everywhere.” 

Arthur flew out of his seat, on high alert, ready to defend his militia. “That was my part of the agreement, yes, and I will make sure that they are punished properly this time around. But you also have your part to uphold!” 

That flame in her eyes were back, the one he really didn’t have the energy to put out again. “Fuck you, Arthur.” 

“No, you haven’t, and that’s the problem! You promised me an heir in exchange for the protection of your settlers! It’s been four months-” 

She shook her head, and chuckled, mocking every fiber of his being. “If you think it’s possible for me to birth a child in four months, then you’re crazy.” 

“Don’t mock me, Leonora! Of course it’s not possible! But it also isn’t possible for you to become pregnant simply by glaring at each other angrily. You won’t share my bed, you won’t let me near you… hell, sometimes you won’t even speak to me for  _ days _ ! What am I supposed to do, huh? Take you against your will?” 

Nora stood still, eyes flickering in a mix of sadness, rage and fear. They were watering, almost filling with tears. Her lips were strung tight into a thin line, and her jaw was tighter than a coil. 

She swallowed. “If you do that, you’re a dead son of a bitch. If you so much as-” She stopped when there was a knock to the door. 

He shook his head. “We’ll continue this later.” 

Leonora wiped away a tear, exhaled, and grabbed the door knob. “Can’t wait.” She muttered sarcastically as she was leaving, bumping into a distraught Scribe on the way out. 

  
  


Nora sat on the Prydwen’s forecastle, overlooking the Commonwealth with weary eyes. The last time it had been this quiet had been right before they had destroyed the Institute.

She took a deep drag of the cigarette, something which she had recently started doing again. Smoking hurt her lungs and left her feeling nauseous, but in order to go through life being married to that megalomaniac, she needed something to fuck her up even worse than Arthur did. 

Leonora breathed in one last time before throwing the butt overboard, into the ocean. But she didn’t leave. Just sat there in her lonesome, listening to the slow alto tune of Skeeter Davis singing “The end of the world”. 

It was late, and the air blew cold against her wet cheeks, but she couldn’t move. Couldn’t bring herself to go to bed in the room that had once belonged to her mentor. 

When she’d first joined up, Danse had been her sponsor, taking her under his wing and taught her the ways of the Brotherhood. It had been in those days when she’d agreed to be Arthur’s wife, against her better judgement. But when it turned out that everyone’s favorite Paladin was a synth, it had been too late to back out of the marriage.  

At one point in her life, in those early days, Leonora thought that maybe… just maybe, she and Arthur could have been happy together. The world didn’t seem so gloomy and gray. Now though, everything was shrouded in darkness and hateful anger that never ebbed. 

That motherfucker Maxson had the audacity to  _ order  _ her to execute the “abomination”. In that moment, Leonora cursed her very existence, vowing to never let him go near her again. And since Arthur didn’t uphold his part of the bargain, then why should she? 

Four months of hell and fury later, they were basically just strangers. 

If they’d met under different circumstances, and if none of the shit had happened, then perhaps her life would have looked different. 

The door clicked, revealing steps she’d heard too many times before. 

“What do you want?” She spat. 

He didn’t move closer, instead just looming in the doorway. “I thought you’d like to know that Haynes and Jonsson won’t be a part of the Brotherhood in the future. They’ve been sent back to the Capital Wasteland to serve out their sentence there.” 

She lit another cigarette, too tense to hold a proper conversation with him without it. Arthur finally approached, standing next to her where she sat. He grabbed the railing and lowered himself down to her level. There they sat, in silence for a while. 

The Elder finally broke it with a deep sigh. “Are you happy now?” 

Nora huffed out an unamused chuckle. “No.” 

“And what would make you happy, huh? Do you wish for me to execute them? Is that it?” Maxson lit his own cigarette, scratching his brow. He blew out the smoke, gazing at the stars above. 

“No.” She replied curtly. 

“Then what? What do you want me to do?” 

She looked at him with dreary eyes. “There’s nothing you can do, Arthur. I think it’s time that we call this quits and go our separate ways.” He gaped, staring at her with blank eyes and furrowed brows. 

“That’s not an option for me, Nora. You know that.” She nodded slowly, hanging her head low. 

“What’s the point, Arthur?” She took a deep breath. “Look, we fight all the time, we don’t like each other and when we try to speak, the sky falls down. We’re a disaster.” He couldn’t help but to agree, understanding why she’d brought it up. But he was determined to see this through… to fight. 

“I know. It’s been this way since the whole business with Danse.” She turned to him, angry eyes glaring. 

“And whose fault is that, Maxson?” Nora spat, a few strands of auburn hair falling in her eyes. 

“The Institute.” 

“Not just their fault, you ass!” She raised her voice. “You could have just let it go. You could have let it slide for old time’s sake. Danse was your  _ best  _ friend, as well as your best Paladin. Just this once-” He shook his head in a hard manner. 

“There are no exceptions, you know that! If it doesn’t stop with Danse, then where does it stop?” He asked. “The Brotherhood stands for-” 

“I know what you stand for,  _ Elder. _ ” She belittled him with every word she spoke. The insults hurt him more than she realized… or maybe she did, which was why she kept on doing this. 

“Then why…” He stopped himself, bypassing yet another topic that was sure to bring on a fight. “Listen, Danse is alive, alright? He may not be Brotherhood anymore, but at least he’s not dead.” 

“Because I stopped you at the last possible minute!” She screamed so loudly that he had to put his hand over her mouth. 

“We agreed that this remain a secret. So let’s just stop. Please, Nora. I can’t live my life like this. It’s enough that I don’t have an heir, but I also have a wife that disrespects me, hates my very guts and everything that I stand for. On top of that, one that won’t even speak to me for days on end. Please… let’s just stop hating each other and get along.” 

She threw his hand from her face, wiping new tears away. “No… it’s too late for that. Any chance of us being happy ended the moment you turned your back on Danse.” 

It grew silent again. Arthur couldn’t count how many days had passed in silence any longer. It was too many. 

The young man looked up at the stars, spotting Orion. Beside him, Leonora started sobbing, holding onto herself for support. He wanted to do something, to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be alright, but he knew that it was a lie. 

They were too broken to be put back together. 

She was too hung up on the past, and he was too set in his ways to change. 

Reluctantly, he agreed. “I’ll leave the divorce papers on your desk in the morning. Once you’ve signed them, you can return to the Castle.” She finally looked at him, eyes glossy and puffed from crying. She gaped, trying to form a sentence that didn’t feel meak and pathetic. 

“Thank you, Arthur… It’s for the best.” 

He shook his head. “No… no it’s not. But it’s what you want, and I can’t deny you this anymore. You want happiness, and it clearly isn’t going to happen when you’re married to me.” 

Nora hated the bitter taste of defeat, of the surrender. But this really was the only way that her wounds could finally heal. 

Because she was too stubborn, and so was he. 

So underneath the starry sky, they admitted defeat, lying down next to each other one last time before they parted ways forever. 

**Author's Note:**

> Holy fuck, this turned out darker than I originally planned. Dammit, I’m actually crying right now TT^TT. I had sort of planned for this to have a happy ending, where they reconciled and finally lived happily ever after, but I realized somewhere along the lines when I was writing that they really weren’t destined to be that way. Hey, not every story can have a happy ending, right? I’m gifting this work to HancockBlocked, for being such an amazing reader as well as writer ;). I always enjoy reading your stories =)   
> I hope you all enjoyed, and if you did, please drop a kudos and a comment. If you have any suggestions of what I should write next, please post them as well ;) I’m open for requests :) Until next time, JA NE!


End file.
